Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station returns to service

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC), a unit of FirstEnergy Corp., announced its Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, returned to service today following refueling and installation of two new steam generators. The outage began on February 1, 2014.

The 900 MW Davis-Besse unit began producing electricity at 12:20 p.m. Friday. The plant, currently operating at 20 percent power, is expected to reach full power within the next week.

While the nuclear power plant was shut down, 80 of Davis-Besse's 177 fuel assemblies were exchanged and numerous safety inspections and preventative maintenance activities were completed on components throughout the plant.

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The new steam generators installed during the shutdown are expected to enhance safe and reliable long-term operation of Davis-Besse. The steam generators function as heat exchangers, producing the steam that is used to drive the turbine generator, which ultimately produces electricity.

Installation of the components was a massive undertaking, with each measuring 74 feet in length, 12 feet in diameter and weighing 470 tons. More than 2,300 temporary contractors and FENOC employees from the company's other nuclear plants supplemented the Davis-Besse workforce to complete the outage projects.

Davis-Besse is part of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., which also operates the Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa., and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio.